Taste Notes

La Trinidad is a community lot selected and processed by CoopeTarrazu as part of a program with our import partner Cafe Imports in the León Cortés area of the Tarrazu region. This program allows separation of lots from specific communities that score over 86 points and they are paid a quality premium. The individual communities receive and decide as a group how the money will be used to improve their coffee production and livelihood. Examples in previous years of the program have seen the premiums used to build roads, large water tanks to store fresh water for the community, roofs for schools, and many other projects.

This was one of the community coffees on the cupping table at the Cafe Imports San Jose office that we visited in March on our day away from visiting farms. The community coffees were grouped on the first table (of 4) that we cupped, each table with 8 coffees. La Trinidad stood out on that first table and I scored it 87 points (anything over 80 is considered to be speciality grade, mid-80's are good solid scores, high-80's are exceptional). Amongst the 12 other coffee folk from across europe and the US and Canada and the 5 Cafe Imports staff it averaged 86. These were some of the descriptors thrown out by the group: red apple, caramel, plum raisin, black tea, melon, minerals, lactic, lemon, citrus peel, green tea, dry.

Started in 1960 with fewer than 300 farmers, the co-op was created in an attempt to step forward in the coffee industry. Coopetarrazu was established to bring control of regional commercial activities back to the farmers, concerned for both the well being of the farmers and the economic development of the region and to stop the unfair practices of the bigger commercial forces.

Water usage and the environment in Costa Rica

During our visit we noticed the distinct lack of water being used in the wet-mills. As well as Costa Rica having made a commitment to being carbon neutral by 2021 they have legislated against water pollution by coffee mills. As you can imagine simply dumping waste water into the surrounding waterways isn't good for the ecosystem.

Here's some useful information sent to us by Cafe Imports:

To start with, washed process it is not illegal. What is illegal is the discharge of wastewater to aquatic ecosystems without any treatment.

There are two governmental authorities who overlook and regulate the intake and discharge of water used to process coffee in Costa Rica (and industries in general): MINAE and the Ministry of Health.

MINAE (Ministry of Environmental, Energy and Telecommunications), specifically their Water Bureau grants the concessions or canons for water use and water discharges.

On the water use canon, MINAE regulates that rivers always maintains a minimum flow (biological flow). Volumes are agreed between the mill and MINAE according to the mill’s needs. It’s fairly regular between one harvest and another, but if for any reason the mill requires more water consumption then they’ll need to pay more for the concessions.

For the discharge of waste water you’ll have both MINAE and the Ministry of Health regulating the pouring and reuse of wastewater. There is a bylaw (regulation) that establishes the permitted parameters (for a coffee mill for example the ‘chemical oxygen demand’ or COD is not higher than 1200). In addition to this, a mill must present three operational reports per harvest which include a logbook and fulfillment of all requirements.

When the three reports are presented, the Ministry of Health gives the mills a certificate of water quality. This certificate is a requirement to update or renew the discharge canon.

In addition to all these, mills and micromills have been investing in newer technology and machinery that requires less use of water to depulp and transport coffee cherries and coffee beans within their facilities. This helps them to deal better with wastewater treatment operations and requirements of the discharge canon.”